First, a word about what we have and who we are from the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, www.lls.org and the National Cancer Institute’s Cancer Statistics Review:
Leukemia, lymphoma, myeloma and myelodysplastic syndrome (MDS) are types of cancer that can affect the bone marrow, the blood cells, the lymph nodes and other parts of the lymphatic system. Each is likely a result of changes to the DNA of a single stem cell.
By the numbers:
* Leukemia, lymphoma and myeloma are expected to account for 9.4 percent of the estimated 1.6-plus million new cancer cases diagnosed in the U.S. this year;
An estimated 1.3 million in the U.S. are living with, or are in remission from, leukemia, Hodgkin lymphoma, non-Hodgkin lymphoma or myeloma.
The immune system is at the center of one area of change.
A major reason blood cancers develop is a failure of the immune system to recognize malignant cells, Brinker said.
He talked about a study of Chimeric Antigen Receptor technology (CAR), at the University of Pennsylvania:
“B-cells are the bad cells in B-lymphocyte leukemias and lymphomas, which are the majority of non-Hodgkin lymphomas and lymphocytic leukemias.
“T-cells are like the military police, they regulate the B-cells.” In some lymphomas and leukemia, malfunctioning T-cells are the evildoers.
“We can put a virus into T-cells in a Petri dish and get them supercharged to specifically fight B-lymphocytes.
“The T-cells are then stimulated to reproduce,” and an army of killer T-cells is re-introduced into the body to destroy the cancer and stick around to take out new threats.
euzicasa 
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